It's not as if the building is aesthetically unpleasent or uninteresting, in fact the subtlety of the lines that define its identity can cause a positive impression effortelessly in almost anyone, and these so called (or self proclaimed) celebrity architects have proven beyond any reasonable doubt their sensibility towards beauty... enough with this superficial beddazzlement undressed of valuable input. We all know you can do it, but i'm longing for an example of starchitecture that presents some novelty, not the same old repetetition of invention or inovation. It's tiring to perceive over and over again this (almost) agonizing sense of entitlement to the notion of place, as if everything should now morph into what they concocted in their minds, stripping selfishly the site of some characteristics that might have once existed. This is not addition, only subtraction.

Just to ilustrate: not long ago in an interview for The Guardian about Hannah Pool, Zaha Hadid was asked if because of the fuss about the cost, and the recession she wished she had designed a more modest building. She answered:

"No. In these moments of recession, uplifting the spirit is even more important and we should learn from things that were done in the past that were done in a hurry."

This answer reflects plain stupidity and the typical illusion of someone who just gave up on dwelling in this world. I'm exagerating, of course, but this answer is, nonetheless just weak sauce.
"It's quite unfortunate to witness someone who started her career with one of the most challenging approaches to convention and norm, now embracing this impudent architecture of representational power. And practice it without a hint of reflection on plain economic legitimacy, not to mention morality." (quote from a barriga de um arquitecto)

Despite...

Located on the western outskirts of Shanghai, China, it's constructed of concrete, steel and glass. The new corporate headquarters of Giant Pharmaceutical Corp looks for all the world like something between a sci-fi battleship landing on a highway, and a steampunk dragon frozen in time. L.A.-based architectural firm Morphosis is focusing on the building’s sustainability as much as its aesthetics, with a green roof, generous use of skylights, and advanced insulation materials like cement-fiberboard paneling and a double-layer, fritted-glass curtain wall.

Slated for completion in 2009, the project will house executive offices in the cantelievered “head” of the structure, while the remaining elements—additional offices, a boutique hotel, exhibition hall, auditorium, library, gymnasium and swimming pool—will be contained in the “body” which arcs over a four-lane highway.
“In China, you can do things formally you just can’t do in the U.S. — aggressive, uncompromised, out-there ideas” said Morphosis principal and Pritzker Prize 2005 winner Thom Mayne, clearly implying that aesthetic and economic concerns outweigh ethical considerations. Sadly, Mayne’s is the prevailing attitude among today’s brand-name architects.

For those fond of top ten lists and energy efficiency, the EPA has just released its list of the US cities with the most commercial buildings earning Energy Star ratings in 2008. EPA is quick to point out that the number of building qualifying for this rating have increased 130% from 2007, and these buildings both use 35% less energy than average buildings and emit 35% less CO2. So without anymore more hesitation, here they are:

1. Los Angeles
2. San Francisco
3. Houston
4. Washington DC
5. Dallas-Fort Worth
6. Chicago
7. Denver
8. Minneapolis-St Paul
9. Atlanta
10. Seattle

In order for a building to qualify for an energy star rating, it must score in the top 25% using EPA's National Energy Performance Rating System. For a complete list of Energy Star rated buildings: Energy Star

Roofs are for people, and should be green and accessible. That is what is so exciting about New Heden in Gothenberg, Daniel Andersson's final thesis at Jönköping University, with Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky of Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects. as tutors. The form of the buildings, "built as sliced hills with grass roofs that can be walked upon" brings the green roofs right down to grade, making them accessible; rooftops become terrain.

New Heden looks green from above. Even though denser developed it has a much greater biomass than its predecessor. Local cultivation of fruits and vegetables is a natural part of living in the area. Grass roofs and parks enrich the animal life and plant life and let nature become an integrated part of the city centre. They also absorb rain water that can be purified and reused as household water.

It is interesting to see how the development of green roofs is actually changing architecture and design.

Julien de Smedt Architects also did a proposal for Rimini, Italy that brings green roofs down to the ground and makes the roofscape part of the terrain.


Designboom describes it:
"The powerful and recognisable pattern evokes sand ripples and sea waves and has the incredible ability to allow both longitudinal and transversal connections : to facilitate the meanderings of passers-by strolling along the boardwalk while at the same time integrating the street connections coming from the city."

But the most interesting feature is the way the town connects to the beach by essentially walking over the building.

Hosted by Core77 and Inhabitat in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association, this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition produced an incredible crop of entries from a worldwide community of designers. After sorting through hundreds of promising entries the choices are narrowed down to 50 top picks...

This one is my personal favourite:

Blight




Description

The sun provides us with energy every day. How can we use it directly for indoor applications? Blight is an optimal indoor lighting solution that is able to replace current lamps without any need of electric supply. With Blight we have not produced a new object; we have just created the design of an everlasting product: the Venetian blind. We use all the current functions of this object and add a little technology to give it a new function - to catch solar energy and convert it into electricity.

This solar blind creates a link between indoor and outdoor, taking the daylight during the day and giving it back at night. The advantage of the Venetian blind is to have a large surface exposed to sunlight in a small, cumbersome object. With the revolving blades we can follow the course of the sun in order to catch a maximum of energy. Moreover we can adjust the position of the lamp to obtain various lighting effects. The produced energy can be used to supply a computer or other devices, by means of an inverter.

The object will combine two newly-discovered technologies: Flexible solar cells, and electroluminescent foil which requires little energy. Blight is durable and ecological because power cables are not needed and solar power is clean. This improved Venetian blind could be used in the household as well as in office applications.

You can check the rest of the list here.

Carbon Neutral master plans are being adopted in several countries, in times when energy and emissions are becoming very important.

And that´s exactly what Azerbaijan will do to develop Zira Island on the Caspian Sea, located in the bay of the capital city Baku. The master plan was developed with danish BIG Architects and Ramboll engineers, with an architectural proposal based upon the country’s dramatic natural setting.

In the words of Bjarke Ingels, the proposal for Zira Island [...] is an architectural landscape based on the natural landscape of Azerbaijan. This new architecture not only recreates the iconic silhouettes of the seven peaks, but more importantly creates an autonomous ecosystem where the flow of air, water, heat and energy are channeled in almost natural ways. A mountain creates biotopes and eco-niches, it channels water and stores heat, it provides viewpoints and valleys, access and shelter. The Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan are not only metaphors, but actual living models of the mountainous ecosystems of Azerbaijan.

This mountain concept may sound strange, but BIG has developed this in the past as you can see on Mountain Dwellings.
As you can see on the images, this urbanized peaks that Bjarke describes are derived from the geometry of famous mountains in the country, and each peak becomes a unit of private and public mixed uses. The result is an organic skyline that merges buildings with the natural topography of the island. Among the peaks, there´s a public central valley that connects a series of private resort villages and the beaches. Also, a public trekking path connects the mountains and allows the visitors to scale up to the top. It also includes 300 private villas that take advantage of their setting with panoramic views out over the Caspian Sea.

But the main highlight of this masterplan was to make the Zira Island completly independent of external resources, achieved through the mix of traditional Azerbaijani building tradition and new technologies. The aim is to provide a high-end living wiht a minimum usage of the resources.

This strategy includes several aspects:




SUN
The buildings of the island are heated and cooled by heat pumps connecting to the surrounding Caspian Sea. Solar heat panels integrated in the architecture create a steady supply of hot water, while photovoltaics on strategically located facades and roof tops power daytime functions as swimming pools and aqua parks.

WATER
Waste water and storm water is collected and led to a waste water treatment plant, where it is then cleaned, processed and recycled for irrigation. The solid parts of the waste water are processed and composted and finally turned into top soil, fertilizing the island. The constant irrigation and fertilizing of the island supports the lush green condition of a tropical island, with a minimal ecological footprint.

WIND
Zira Zero Island benefits from the fact that Baku is “the city of wind”. By harvesting the wind energy through an offshore wind farm, the island will have its own CO2-neutral power supply. Further by locating the wind turbines on sea, it transforms the existing offshore oil industry’s platforms & foundations in Baku into a more sustainable future of wind turbine platforms.

LANDSCAPE
The landscaping of the island is derived from wind simulations of the microclimates created by the mountains. Swirly patterns created by the wind moving its way through the Seven Peaks inform the planting of trees and the design of public spaces. Where the winds and turbulence are strongest the trees becomes denser, creating lower wind speeds and thus a comfortable outdoor leisure climate.

The joint submission by Foster & Partners and Aston Martin has won first prize, alongside Capoco Design, in Transport for London’s competition to design a new bus for the capital. The two iconic British brands worked together to challenge preconceptions of bus design with a vehicle that is environmentally sensitive, accessible, convivial and reinvents a much-loved symbol of London for the modern era.

The winning designs make imaginative use of hybrid-drive technology, lightweight materials and a wealth of fresh engineering ideas. The designs pay homage to the well-known shape of the Routemaster, a particularly fine city bus that defied fashion and changes in the ownership and control of London’s buses.

Lord Foster said:
“I am delighted that we have won joint first prize with the Aston Martin/Foster + Partners design. This project has really captured my imagination. London’s buses are so much a part of the essence of this city – functionally, symbolically and geographically. They help us draw a mental map – their destinations are London’s historic places, often green: Shepherds Bush, Islington Green, Hampstead Heath, Green Park. Our design seeks to combine contemporary innovation with timelessness. Like the original Routemaster – which was ahead of its time and consequently endured – a new bus for London should establish a whole new travel experience that espouses 21st century aspirations, while celebrating the memory and the experience of the original.”

A new green complex from world renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners will be adding more than a dash of green to the Singapore skyline. As sustainability becomes an essential ingredient to development in this island nation, the UK-based firm is leaving no stone unturned to make good use of alternative energy sources in this 150,000 square meter mixed-use project. As the winning design from an international competition, Singapore’s new eco-complex from Foster + Partners is pushing the green envelope from top to bottom in this sophisticated downtown design.

The complex will fill an entire city block between Singapore’s Marina Center and the Civic District with commercial, residential, retail, hotels, and a ‘green’ link to an Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station. All facades will be fitted with solar cells and, to help control solar gain, direct sunlight will be filtered through ribbon-like canopies rising from the base of the entire complex to the exposed east and west elevations of the towers.

The canopies will form vertical louvers at the elevations and provide more renewable on-site energy with integrated thin-film solar arrays. Vertical green spaces, and extensive sky gardens are also important components of the towers, further greening the whole structure with natural vegetation and ambient temperature moderation.

The slanted facades are designed to catch the wind and direct it downwards for natural cooling of the ground floor spaces. A rainwater harvesting system, geothermal heating system, chilled beams and ceilings, and an ice storage system for cooling are further enhancements planned for the complex.
While it looks intensely complex, the design takes advantage of simple green building principles like passive solar, natural ventilation and natural cooling. Foster + Partners’ dynamic design will function in sync with the surrounding climate, and just might be the perfect merger of elevated architecture and grounded green build thinking.

The green building movement in Asia may be lagging behind the U.S. and Europe, but it is slowly gaining momentum. Today’s Wall Street Journal features a piece that highlights eco-architecture projects taking shape in Asian cities across Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. One project is Ocean One, a 91-story beachfront residential high-rise in the Thai resort town of Pattaya.

Designed by Australia-based firm Woods Bagot, the building (set to be completed in 2010) will be the first eco-friendly high-rise and tallest building to be built in Thailand. Energy efficient appliances will save residents as much as 30% on electricity bills and up to 80% of the water used will be recycled for toilets and then treated for use outdoors. “A highspeed elevator will zip visitors to an observation deck, generating enough electricity as it descends to light the deck at night. Solar panels on the roof of an adjacent commercial building will power shops and restaurants.” Excess energy will even be fed into Thailand’s electricity grid.

Riding the wave of new development in China, Studio SHIFT recently won a competition to design a new landmark in Miyi County. Miyi Tower will sit on the edge of the Anning river as a symbol of the new face of Sichuan provence. The tower’s most striking feature is its whimsical latticework skin, which suffuses the structure with daylight and “evokes the shimmering surface of the river below.” This connection is reinforced by the project’s goal of filtering and transforming the polluted Anning river into a lush landscape of wetlands, lakes, leisure and agricultural areas.

The Miyi Tower itself will be a state-of-the-art community space providing a multitude of educational, entertainment and community programs aimed at promoting the region’s heritage and natural amenities. Ambitiously redefining the term multi-use, the tower will feature “an auditorium, exhibition spaces and restaurants featuring local cuisine on the interior while open-air floors are used as event spaces, gardens and an observation deck. The pairs of lower and upper enclosed spaces are joined by structures which act as light monitors. These light monitors, of which there is a third at the highest level, are aligned to take advantage of different lighting conditions throughout the day. The tower is sheathed in a very porous yet continuous skin that gives the various programs their unified form. As porous building skins are often treated as opaque modules with subtracted holes (i.e. perforated skins) Studio SHIFT deliberately created the inverse.“

Masdar, the new sustainable super-city being developed by Abu Dhabi, recently announced that it is building the largest grid-connected solar plant in the Middle East. The 10 MW solar plant will be half thin-film and half crystalline silicon photovoltaics, with 5 MW of thin film solar panels being provided by Arizona-based First Solar. The Masdar solar power plant is expected to reduce emissions of 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually and cost around $50 million.

Designed by Foster + Partners, Masdar is poised to be the world’s most sustainable city. Their masterplan envisions a development that is zero-waste, car-free, and carbon neutral. Solar power will be an essential resource for the city, as the sun will also power their Rapid Transit System.


Abu Dhabi-based Environma Power Systems Designed and developed the new power plant, which will support ongoing construction activities in Masdar and later will provide energy for the Masdar Institute, which opens in late 2009. Any excess power from the plant will be fed into the Abu Dhabi electric grid.

First Solar’s thin film photovoltaics utilize Cadmium Telluride as a semiconductor, which enables them to use only 1-2% of the semiconductor material required for traditional photovoltaic panels. Manufacturing a thin film panel takes around 2.5 hours from start to finish using First Solar’s process. The efficiency of these panels is estimated to be around 9%, and costs are expected to be below $1 per peak Watt per module. Currently, commercial efficiencies for traditional photovoltaics are above 20%, but costs rise above $1.5 per peak Watt.

It has been a while since i last posted something. I`m sorry for the absence but i was visiting Portugal for one week and it involved quite a bit of time consumption...



BMW's Idea: Pioneering a carbon-free future

BMW has a history of not just being a pioneer in car technologies but also thinking ahead into the future. That is why in terms of a long term vision BMW has invested in a 20-year R&D project to develop sustainable transportation for a post-carbon world. Their proposed solution: Hydrogen. It's a plentiful resource. And the exhaust produced by a hydrogen engine is 99% water. It's not an uncomplicated solution. But provided we can figure out how to extract it from water cheaply, manufacture it efficiently, and build out the infrastructure of hydrogen fueling stations that will make deployment practical, it could be viable.

As a first step toward making this a reality, BMW developed the Hydrogen 7, which runs on gasoline and liquid hydrogen. It's not an end solution, but a manufacturable proof-of-concept. One they wanted the world's influencers to see up close and try for themselves.

But BMW does not stop here. In keeping with their pioneering spirit BMW launched Club of Pioneers (be sure to check it out, it`s worth an insightfull peek), an open dialogue platform all about future mobility - encouraging people to discuss, share and spread their ideas and visions on sustainable concepts.



GINA stands for "Geometry and Functions in 'N' Adaptations", which basically means that designers from both BMW and BMW Group DesignworksUSA were allowed to throw out the rulebook. This is most evident in the GINA Light Visionary Model's outer skin, which is made entirely out of textile fabric that's pulled taut around a frame of metal and carbon fiber wires. The skeleton of the car is controlled by electro-hydraulic devices and can actually move and change shape beneath the fabric skin. For instance, the headlights of the concept can be exposed or hidden by the car's skin just like blinking eyes, and the hood opens from the center as the fabric parts to expose the engine. This idea extends to the interior, where BMW designers have made visible only those instruments that are required at a certain time, while the rest of the time the same fabric interior "blinks" them out of view. The car itself looks somewhat like a Z4 Roadster, though after viewing the extensive gallery of high-res images below, you'll be amazed how much the outer skin looks like normal sheetmetal. Until, that is, you see how the doors open. They lift up in a semi-scissor fashion and since there are no exposed hinges, the fabric artfully binds up as the door swings open. While the design of the GINA Light Visionary Model is very Bangle-esque with concave and convex surfaces intermingling everywhere you look, it looks appropriate and natural here. The car is very much a concept, meant more to inspire BMW's own designers and engineers rather than excite the public, but now we're excited about shape-changin, fabric-covered cars, anyway.

BMW at TED2007: From top to bottom: Test driving the Hydrogen 7; Dr. Frank Ochmann, BMW's VP of Clean Energy, discusses hydrogen at a special lunch; The Hydrogen 7 in the conference Simulcast Lounge.

Larry Burns: Reinventing the car


It's always interesting to take a peek at the TED website.

How crazy are our concepts of habitation getting? Is it a possible design or is it just pure fiction?

Council House 2 (also known as CH2), is a green office building located in the CBD, in Melbourne, Australia. It is occupied by the City of Melbourne council, and in April, 2005, became the first purpose-built office building in Australia to achieve a maximum Six Green Star rating, certified by the Green Building Council of Australia. CH2 officially opened in August, 2006.

Comparing to a building with a Five Green Star rating, CH2's emissions will be 64% lower. When compared to the existing Council House next door, it is expected to:

-reduce electricity consumption by 85%
-reduce gas consumption by 87%
-produce only 13% of the emissions
-reduce water mains supply by 72%

Features include new LCD computer monitors, which will consume 77% less energy, and new T5 light fittings which should consume 65% less energy. The building also houses 48 m2 of solar panels, which provide 60% of hot water, as well as a gas-fired cogeneration plant which provides 40% of the building's overall electricity, with reduced carbon emissions.

Check the Pdf for detailed info and some pics.
Build Melbourne

Connected Home from MIT Mobile Experience Lab on Vimeo.

The visualisation above comes out of MIT's Mobile Experience Lab in collaboration with Cisco Systems - Internet Business Solutions Group.

The Connected Home of the future, according to the lab, will incorporate an integrated approach to buildings and their interaction with occupants, the local community, and beyond. The demonstration above of the Connected Home of the future incorporates smart energy solutions, automated services and efficiency measures to aid citizens lead more sustainable lives.

Technologies such as a Personal Travel Assistant, energy monitoring tools, TelePresence and social networking interactions, and energy grids for micro generation of energy across the urban community illustrate how citizens can play a positive and sustainable role in their urban landscape.

This year's Greener Gadgets Conference will take place on February 27, 2009 in New York City. As part of the event, Greener Gadgets has once again partnered with Core77 to generate outstanding design innovations for greener electronics. This design competition challenges established design firms, emerging designers, and design students to come up with new and innovative solutions to address the issues of energy, carbon footprint, health and toxicity, new materials, product lifecycle, and social development. The top 50 entries will be published on the web for voting and commenting, and top finalists will be showcased live at the Greener Gadgets Conference for judging by an expert panel. Awards will be given out at the end of the conference program, and winners will be showcased on Core77.com, GreenerGadgets.com, CE.org, and Inhabitat.com.

These are the kind of initiatives we need. It's encouraging to see the design community coming together with the objective of improving the life quality of us all (which was, in my opinion the primary goal and the whole point of design related activities).

Accepting his 2006 TED Prize, Cameron Sinclair demonstrates how passionate designers and architects can respond to world housing crises. He unveils his TED Prize wish for a network to improve global living standards through collaborative design.

Architect Norman Foster discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and "basically pollution-free." From the 2007 DLD Conference, Munich; www.dld-conference.com

William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle



Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account "all children, all species, for all time...
Architect William McDonough believes that green design can prevent environmental disaster -- while also driving economic growth. He champions “cradle to cradle” design that considers the full life cycle of a product, from its creation with sustainable materials to a recycled afterlife.

Architect William McDonough practices green architecture on a massive scale. In a 20-year project, he is redesigning Ford's city-sized River Rouge truck plant and turning it into the Rust Belt's eco-poster child, with the world's largest "living roof" for reclaiming storm runoff. He has created buildings that produce more energy and clean water than they use. Oh, and he's designing seven entirely new and entirely green cities in China.

Bottom-line economic benefits are another specialty of McDonough's practice. A tireless proponent of the idea that absolute sustainability and economic success can go hand-in-hand, he’s designed buildings for the Gap, Nike and Frito-Lay that have lowered corporate utility bills by capturing daylight for lighting, using natural ventilation instead of AC, and heating with solar or geothermal energy. They're also simply nicer places to work, surrounded by natural landscaping that gives back to the biosphere.

In 2002 he co-wrote Cradle to Cradle, which proposes that designers think as much about what happens at the end of a product’s life cycle as they do about its beginning. (The book itself is printed on recyclable plastic.) From this, he is developing the Cradle to Cradle community, where like-minded designers and businesspeople can grow the idea. He has been awarded three times by the US governemt, and Time magazine called him a Hero of the Planet in 1999.
"His utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that -- in demonstrable and practical ways -- is changing the design of the world."
Time



This is personally one of my favourite talks from the TED community and it hints (if not, shows) the change that the architectural world is currently undertaking.